I love music. Music is such a mysterious force and power. And that makes me love God more. That He would create this vast complex thing and allow us to somewhat tame it reminds me how creative and generous God is. He has given music the ability to draw forth emotions from you that you weren't even aware you had. Music can excite, motivate, encourage, calm, and heal. It can be beautiful. It can be sorrowful. And it can be both of those things at the exact same time. It can bring a moment of joy to the person at the bottom of the pit of sorrow, while also fill one with a sense of sorrow, though they have no reason in their life to fill that sorrow. It can calm and soothe a crying baby. And yet make the hardest man weep. Music is a beautiful creation by God. And God delights to have His children make music for Him.
I've been enjoying/listening to/singing/playing instruments for almost as long as I can remember. I come from a very musical family. Growing up music was being played in our home a lot...whether listening to a wide range of genres on the stereo, having jam sessions with family and friends, to guitar lessons led by my parents for me and my friends from youth group, or rehearsals for upcoming concerts. I've been around music my whole life and I love it. I enjoy writing and composing music...especially instrumental stuff. I think I have a gift with words when it comes to writing long, drawn out research papers. But to convey a deep thought or emotion in just a few words, while also making it fit rhythmically in the song, is a whole other gift. And when God was divvying up the gifts between me and my sister Hannah, I think He decided to give Hannah my helping of that gift because she is a phenomenal song writer. She has been writing her own songs and performing for a long time. And I have had the privilege to perform with her a lot over the years, and even collaborate on a few songs and one of her albums. So I don't have many songs with words. But because of Vanessa a few love songs did actually come to existence (some actually pretty good, and some pretty lousy). But I also really love writing instrumental stuff. A dream of mine is to one day write something like an orchestral sound track you would hear for a movie.
Music has always seemed to be one of those things that comes pretty naturally to me. Just like some people are naturally athletic, I think God made me naturally musical. And people have been pretty encouraging over the years and seem to affirm this gift. I know any ability I have is completely from the Lord and I need to use that ability to direct people's attention back to Jesus.
One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Psalm 137 verses 4 through 6. It's a Psalm written by an Israelite in captivity. The writer is a musician and he's lamenting about missing his homeland, Jerusalem. In the song he talks about how his captor taunts him and wants him to play one of those happy songs from his homeland. And he goes on to say "How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? If I forget you Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill! Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy!" And I try to keep those words as my prayer and motto when it comes to music (and really even life in general). When I write or perform music I want my goal to be doing it for God's glory. Not to make me look good. Not to further my little kingdom. But to direct all eyes to Jesus.
The following are some songs I'd like to share. With the exception of Fight to Hope, all the other songs are ones written solely by me. A few are cheesy love songs (and yes I believe you can bring God glory through a silly love song), while others are more serious in nature. The last 2 years myself, and some pastors and musicians from my church have gotten away to a lake house for a night to work on writing worship songs that tie in with our upcoming sermon series. We've written 2 songs; Fight to Hope and Demands. With Fight to Hope we then had the opportunity to go into a recording studio and record it. Eventually down the road we hope to do the same with Demands. Anyways, I hope you enjoy!...
(All songs except for Fight to Hope are copyrighted under Waiting in Anticipation. You have my permission to download any of these songs and distribute. But if you make a profit off them, I want in!)
Juke Box:
Songs with short backstories and lyrics (if available):
Fight to Hope
Myself, along with some pastors and musicians from my church got away one night to a lake house in 2014 and we wrote this song together for our sermon series we were about to start in the book of Mark. What stood out to us when reading through the book of Mark was how so many times Jesus would do something miraculous but immediately following the miracle the crowd's, or even the disciples', response was fear or doubt. We then had to remind ourselves that we are no different. So the idea behind this song was that we can't let our guard down. We must continue to press on, fight the fight and run the race. And on a lot of days all we might be able to manage to do is simply fight to hope in the gospel.
My Sunshine
Written the summer of 2008 for Vanessa while she was away on a missions trip in Nicaragua. This is probably one of my favorite songs I've written.
Take the Chance
This was written my Junior year of college and recorded with some friends (before I met Vanessa). I had a crush on a girl in a Spanish class but was to scared to go up and talk to her. So I ended up writing this song making fun of how silly that is. Fun side note: I had pretty much the whole song written but did not have a chorus or the bridge yet and I was stuck. I could not figure out what the chorus should be about. But that year Will Smith had come out with the movie Hitch and that was a popular movie choice. So one night while watching it movie with some friends there's the scene at the end of the movie where Will Smith's character gives this speech to win the girl back, and his speech is what inspired the chorus to this song. Other fun side note: a few weeks into the semester we had to get up and give a talk in Spanish about ourselves, and the girl I was interested in got up and in Spanish told us she had a boyfriend, and that she wanted to marry him. So I pretty much lost interest. And sure enough, later that semester they were engaged.
Arise My Lord
When Vanessa and I first began dating, the Lord was leading her through a huge trial which was in the form of health problems. It was a season for Vanessa of intense trial and questioning what God was doing. This was a song I wrote for her.
The Traylor Team
Our Church!
